


Retribution

by KristenSharpe



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Drama, F/M, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 16:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7539910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KristenSharpe/pseuds/KristenSharpe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A battle of wills has ended. Now, all that is left is for the victor to wrap up some loose ends. [Oneshot]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Retribution

**Title: Retribution  
Author: ** Kristen Sharpe **  
Date:** September 18, 2004  
**Finalized:** September 21, 2004 **Edited:** January 2005 **  
** **Disclaimer:** Inuyasha, the character and the series, belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan Inc., and Sunrise.

* * *

The battle had been impossibly long. Exhausted, he slumped against the wall at his back. Night dark hair tangled around his face as he let his head loll forward. The war of wills had been harder than either combatant had expected. The being who called himself Naraku had absorbed many youkai over the course of his existence, but none had fought like the half-breed Inuyasha.

The victor allowed himself a few moments to revel in the satisfaction of his triumph. But, only a few moments. He wasn't finished just yet.

Forcing himself to his feet, he strode to the door and snapped it aside. Crimson eyes swept across the room beyond. The room’s sole occupant, Kanna, met his gaze with her own expressionless stare.

“You are finished? It has been many days.” Her thin whisper of a voice was almost loud in the stillness.

“Yes,” he answered shortly.

Yes, the battle at least was finished.

* * *

For the second time in as many minutes Kagome rubbed her face against her sleeve. It was already damp with tears.

‘ _I can do this!_ ’ the girl reprimanded herself sharply. Her hands tightened their grip on the bow she carried. Nails bit into the wood. Fingers crimped the fletching of the arrow she had strung in preparation for the battle ahead. She would be strong. Inuyasha would have wanted her to be strong.

“Inuyasha...” His name tumbled from her lips.

Hearing it almost cost Kagome her newly gained composure. It was so hard to accept that he was gone. But, she had to accept it. If she couldn’t, Naraku would win.

Forcing her feet to move, the schoolgirl slipped from the narrow crevice where she had hidden. Now, she could only wait. Soon, Naraku would see her, and he would come.

Her hands tensed around the bow until her knuckles glared white through the taut skin. When he came, she couldn’t hesitate. He would expect her to hesitate.

There was movement from above.

Slowly, Kagome raised her eyes to the wooden structure set perilously along the cliff face. She bit the inside of her cheek, grinding the flesh until it bled.

This was it then. The girl desperately steeled her resolve, lifting the bow to a firing position, preparing to let fly an arrow. An arrow that would pierce through that beloved form. An arrow that would, that must burn away what would be her last glance of Inuyasha’s face.

‘ _It won’t be him,_ ’ Kagome reminded herself. ‘ _He’ll take Inuyasha’s form, but he is_ not _Inuyasha!_ ’

She looked up.

There was a flash of color.

"Naraku!"

With a scream that embodied all of her rage, all of her pain, and all of her love for the half-human boy who had sacrificed himself for her sake, Kagome released her arrow. Raw power gathered around the arrow, brightening until its intensity rivaled the sun. The shaft became no more than a coruscating rush of coral light. It flew upward and flared into nothingness in an empty sky.

Kagome gasped in horror as hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her back against a solid body. Numbly, she stared ahead, her eyes as desolate as the barren sky where her target should have been.

He had snuck around behind her.

He hadn’t waited! He hadn’t taunted her with Inuyasha’s face. He hadn’t trusted that she would never unleash her power against even a mockery of the boy she loved.

But, _why?_ They had been so sure.

Sango-chan and Miroku-sama had gone ahead and likely already sacrificed their lives to give her this chance, hoping they wouldn’t need it. Hoping they could defeat him alone. Kagome was their best chance, and their last chance. If Sango and Miroku couldn’t stop Naraku, they could at least convince him that Kagome was hiding. That she didn’t want to face him. That she _couldn’t_ face him. If he believed that, if he came looking for a heartbroken girl who wouldn’t shoot, she had a chance.

But, he hadn't believed it.

Was it all for nothing then?

“ _I_ knew you were strong, Kagome,” a dark voice purred in her ear. “You’ve always been strong.”

It was too much. The shock, the raw power she had spent, the aching despair. It was too much.

Kagome let herself pass into blissful oblivion only distantly hearing the voice swear above her.

“Oi, you aren’t going to pass out on me, are you?! Oi, Kagome! It’s _me_!”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and constructive criticisms always welcomed. And, I hope the ending makes sense. I've gotten mixed responses since I first posted this on FFN. I've edited it and attempted to address the parts reviewers found confusing. Hopefully, it's more clear now. If not, please let me know!


End file.
